As a small business owner, you reach a stage where you do not wear all the caps anymore; this is where you make the decision to expand and hire extra manpower, top talents. It is important to be able to attract top employees as well as be able to retain them to help the business remain effective and productive with evident growth.

Top talents are key players, who bring in clients, retain clients, and increase sales. They are committed, effective, productive, competitive, have leadership traits, and experience growth in alignment with the aim, and goal of the organization. Attracting and retaining top talent is vital for any organization, either small or big.

As a startup, it might be a struggle to attract and retain top talents. When an organization loses one of its top talents, the company loses out on the highly effective role of the employee; this could have very costly effects and might take a while to find a good replacement with a high level of productivity.

Google is the world’s number one employer for the sixth year in a row. Laszlo Bock, the former Senior Vice President, people operations of Google, said that the primary reason why employees stay in the company is not money, but for the quality of their team, or the value of work they are doing.

So what are the ways that a company can keep its top talent in the company and satisfied enough to remain effective? Here are four ways how;

Communication
Communication between top talent and an employer is very important and could occur in various forms. However, it does not just end at listening. Communication is complete when an action has been taken based on what was being communicated.

When a top talent’s idea is being implemented as a result of their suggestion, the talent will continue to engage in communicating their ideas, which the employer might benefit from. Even if an idea or suggestion is not implementable, it is required that the employer acknowledges it and explains why it will not be implemented.

When an idea is halfway there or doesn’t fit the objectives of the organization, an employer should be creative in expertly informing the employee that the idea would not be implemented, rather than saying yes and doing nothing about it, or shooting it down instantly, with little or no explanation, with phrases like; “because I said so”, or “because I am the boss”. This leads to an employee keeping their ideas to themselves or seeking out another organization that will listen to them and implement their ideas thereby leading to a huge loss for the organization.

Another important aspect of communication between an employer and the top talent is to make sure that their job description, duties and requirements are well communicated to them at the beginning, as well as on the work clearly, and directly.

Good employees want to please and work efficiently for the organization, but when they do not know what it is they need to do to make that happen, it becomes difficult.

Effective communication also leads to finding out where the employees might be facing difficulties. As an employer, you have to be careful about making assumptions and communicate effectively, to know what is going on, or where employees might be facing difficulties in their line of duty, and work towards solving the problem if the problem persists, it might affect growth, productivity, and development negatively.

Engagement
Top talents appreciate when they are involved in the decision making of the organization, as it affects them too, whether positively or negatively. The goals, values, mission, and accomplishments should be set or improved in relation to the growth and development of the employee.

This helps to increase engagement, when the employees are allowed the opportunity to suggest additions or changes to the vision and mission of the organization, on a regular basis, it increases the ownership over the core values and mission that drive the business.

Employees could also be engaged by promoting from within the organization. Top talents want to know that they would be considered for promotion, or made a partner in the company. This fosters healthy competition among top talents, which ultimately boosts the productivity and growth of the company, by ensuring there is an established, solid internal advancement program. It is not encouraging for top talents when there is continuous recruitment of new management from outside the company.

When top talents are also involved in the decision making of the organization it boosts satisfaction and ultimately employee retention. Little decisions such as what color the lobby should be painted, to big decisions like where the new branch should be located, or what advertising campaign should be implemented for the year, are important in an organization, to boost engagement, and aid retention of the employees.

Also when an employee is learning, they become engaged. Training like leadership training or skills acquisition, in relation to the objectives of the organization, grows the top talent who applies this knowledge in the improvement and development of the organization which in turn aids the growth of the organization in a competitive market.

Alignment
When there is efficient communication between employer and employees, and employee engagement is topnotch, it makes employees feel like one and part of the organization. The objectives, weaknesses, strengths, goals, and mission of the employee, should be identified and aligned with the operational needs of the employee, and the organization.

If you have a top talent, who is good with graphics, to help the employee improve and feel like a part of the organization, a need for graphics could be created like a monthly happy new month banner, put out every month, in that way, the talent’s ability has been identified and permitted to grow for the employees benefit, and that of the company, in this way the company has aligned its objective with that of the top talent.

An employer cannot simply assume what an employee wants or needs, hence the need for communication and engagement within the organization. To ensure that the needs of the top talent are satisfied when aligning.

Compensation
Compensations are various forms of indirect, non-monetary or monetary reward provided to employees of a company or organization, in addition to regular wages, or salary. This could be in the form of perks or benefits. Also when a top talent does something exceptional, it is usually sufficient to provide more than a good job accompanied by a thumbs up to appreciate their work. They can be compensated with a bonus, raise, a spa day, or extra vacation days; this boosts the employee’s morale and satisfaction, ultimately promoting retention.

Studies have shown that employees will prefer to stay longer with a company that offers great employee benefits, compared to companies that do not.9 Employee retention has become a huge challenge due to the fact that productive employees leave for friendlier working conditions, as well as, as a result of staff poaching. Compensation aids the employer in retaining their top talent, which ultimately improves working performances which leads to increased sales and efficiency.

Employees are valued assets when they are efficient, and when they are not, it can affect the company negatively.

While you may not be able to implement all of the above immediately, start small and improve on what you can while assuring top talent that they are valued and their contribution no matter how small is valued.

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/06/six-tips-for-retaining-talented-employees/amp/
http://amp.businessinsider.com/google-laszlo-bock-how-to-retain-employees-2015-4
http://www.selectinternational.com/blog/bid/148239/5-things-successful-companies-do-to-retain-top-talent
https://hbr.org/2010/05/how-to-keep-your-toptalent
https://www.residentialsystems.com/.amp/blogs/4-ways-to-retain-top-talent
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/10-ways-to-retain-top-talent
https://www.residentialsystems.com/.amp/blogs/4-ways-to-retain-top-talent
http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/compensation-employee.cfm
https://www.inc.com/chad-halvorson/5-reasons-you-should-be-investing-in-employee-development.html